I'll start with some stuff I asume everybody knows, but better not leave it un-mentioned, and some random stuff that might be usefull when trying to understand the guide.
Then I'll tell you how to build a very basic easy-to-fly plane.
After that I'll try to give you some "tools" to change a plane's behaviour, like wing sweep, etc.

I´m no expert, and not a native speaker. If you find grammar, or spelling mistakes, please tell me about them. Same if I talk BS (bull **it).

I'm also not playing the game anymore, so my knowledge about what is modelled might not be up to date. Please inform me if something has been modelled now.

• Left click on the blue ring around a connection to rotate the part 90° clockwise. Ctrl + click for a 9° rotation (which will come in handy later), shift click for 90° counter-clockwise
  
• The blue dot with the weight of the craft beside it is your centre of mass (CoM). One of 2 very importand points on your craft. The otherone is the centre of lift (CoL) which isnt shown (sadly)

• Nose up/nose down = pitch axis. Controlled by the control surfaces on your tail wings, called elevator
  
• Nose left/nose right = yaw axis. Controlled by the control surfaces on your vertical tail wings, called rudder.
  
• One wing up, one wing down = roll axis. Controlled by the control surfaces on your wingtips, called ailerons.
  
• The angle between the point you are flying towards, and the point your nose points at is called the angle of attack (AoA) for pitch, and sideslip angle for yaw.
  The angle between horizon and what your nose is pointing at is the pitch angle

There is some relatively easy stuff to watch when building a plane.

One of the most importand things to watch is that the CoL is behind your CoM.
So basicly: keep your wings roughly at the CoM, and then add tail planes (like on the default plane).
This isnt the most efficient way, as it means your plane will nose down by default (which also means that you shouldnt overdo it, otherwise it noses down too much), but it ensures your plane is controlable. This tendency can be countered by either rotating the tail plane, or adding an offset angle to the elevator (like seen on the default plane).

You can kind of think of it like you'd be attaching a string to where the CoL is, and then lifting the plane. The CoM will move directly below the CoL. If your CoM is in front of the CoL, your plane noses down.
As you can see here, the CoM is "roughly were the wings are", so the CoL is behind the CoM, causing a nose down motion, which is countered with the tail wings producing negative lift.



When building your gear, make sure that the nose points above the horizon when standing on the runway. Otherwise you'll have problems taking off (again, like default) (you can build a gear with the nose pointing down, but that means you will need to pull the nose up manually - I have little experience with that, so you'll need to exepriment yourself).
Also, when building a nose gear plane (like the default plane) keep the main gear legs close-ish to the CoM. That way you'll be able to raise the nose while still on the ground.

You need to add a tail fin. That will increase your yaw stability (similar to the pitch stability when keeping wings behind the CoM), and allow you to control the yaw axis, using the rudder.

What also helps with controling your plane are wings that are mounted above the CoM. Again, if you'd lift the plane at the CoL, the CoM would move below the CoL. And in this case it means that it will pull your wings into the horizontal.


Now, assign your ailerons, rudder and elevator to your controls (you'll need to invert one of the elevators to make them deflect the same way), same for engine, wheels, etc.


Now unless one of us has forgotten something, you should be ready to go. So lets get to the actual flying.
Keep in mind that a propeller engine adds prop torque (and related effects; it's not "just" torque, but people usually only call it that because people are lazy), leading to a mixture of yawing, and rolling motion. You'll need to counter that yawing movement during takeoff.

Don't pull too tight.
If you pull tight your wings will stall, increasing drag, and decreasing lift. That usually isnt what you want.
How tight you can pull depends on your plane ofcourse. The lower your elevator authority (= the less your elevator moves your nose), and the lower your wing loading (= more wings, less weight), the more you can pull.

Using your ailerons adds a yawing movement. You may want to counter it using your rudder, but that isn't required to keep a plane in the air.
Also, a stable plane will roll in the direction you yaw towards (dihedral effect).

Don't use the rudder to change direction. First bank your plane, then pull.
This is what a normal turn should look like. Plane is banked, and the pilot pulls enough to keep the nose at a steady pitch angle.

Basics:

• The air above the wing is accelerated (gets importand near supersonic speeds)
  
• The airflow is deflected downwards, pushing you up
  
• Increasing AoA increases lift, and drag
  
• Increasing the AoA too much will only increase drag, without increasing lift/while decreasing lift
  
• Doubling your speed will multiply both lift and drag by 4

There are two different ways to gain lift (the stuff that keeps you from falling back on the ground).

Bernoulli's principle means that when a gas is accelerated, its (static) pressure decreases.
Thanks to the shape of airplane wings, the air on top of the wing will have to move more until it reaches the end of the wing, and is therefore accelerated. Now, the air above the wing has a lower pressure than the air below the wing and, because of that, the wing is being pulled up. Obviously, this works better at high speeds. Lift is proportional to the speed of your plane² (L is proportional to v². Note that drag is also proportional to v²).
There are planes with symmetrical airfoils (mostly meant for aerobatics if I am not mistaken), to which this doesn't apply. That's basicly what is modelled in-game (meaning your wings will not produce lift at 0 AoA).





The second thing that makes a plane fly is that the wings push the air down. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so the wings are being pushed up.










A way to increase the amount of air deflected downwards is to increase the angle of attack. Increasing the AoA will increase lift. However, if you increase the AoA too much a stall will occur (upper part of the picture), reducing lift, increasing drag, and rendering the control surfaces on that wing useless (the loss of control isnt modelled. Be happy about it, would make things way more difficult)

There are several types of propulsion systems modelled in this game: propellers (I´ll just write props from now on), jet engines, ramjet engines, and rocket engines.

Prop basics:

• Rely on the same principles as wings
  
• Work good at low speeds
  
• Get less effective at high speeds, and will procude more drag than thrust at very high speeds
  
• Add rolling and yawing movement (unless using counter-rotating props)

The first plane you will build is most likely a propeller plane. Props work fine at low speed, and are relatively fuel efficient. They are basicly rotating wings, just that they produce thrust instead of lift.
However, when reaching mach one (the speed of sound, should decrease with altitude, but thats not modelled) drag increases massively, turning your propulsion system into a big fan aka air brake. Whats more, this already occurs well below mach one, because your prop is turning, which means its moving even faster, and your prop blades will reach mach one before your plane does.
Props also slow your plane down alot when turned off, or running at very low RPM. In RL, you can feather your prop, turning your prop blades to offer the least resistance.
Another disadvantage is that the turning prop also makes your plane roll and yaw. You can counter this with a second prop with inverted spin enabled (or 2 enabled and 2 disabled, 3 and 3, and so on). Counter rotating props make flying easier. You can also try to trim your plane instead.

Some stuff that isnt modelled (but is usually automated nowadays anyway): mixture control, radiator control, prop pitch, and supercharger.
Mixture is the fuel-air-mixture. Rich mixture = loads of fuel, lean mixture = loads of air. Too rich, and you have too much fuel, and cant burn everything. Too lean, and the engine will starve. The higher your alt, the leaner your mixture needs to be. Using a rich mixture will cool the engine a bit (the fuel will absorb some of the heat, similar to water-injection systems), opposite if using lean mixture.
The radiator cools your engine. The faster you fly, the more it cools. If you fly around at high throttle, but low speed (climbs, turns), your engine would overheat, so you need to open the radiator. Opening the radiator increases drag. Also, your engine shouldnt be cooled too much. Not good for the engine (the oil won't be able to lubricate the moving parts properly, causing some damage at high RPM).
Prop pitch is used to control the RPM (like gears in a car). SImilar to feathering, your prop blades are turned, adjusting the ammount of drag and thrust they offer. When flying faster, the airflow will accelerate your prop, increasing RPM, if you dont reduce throttle, or adjust pitch. Usually though, you´ll have constant speed props (CSP). Here, you dont control the pitch, but set a desired RPM. The pitch will be automatically adjusted to keep that RPM.
Superchargers compress the air before it enters the engine. Necessary to reach high alts, and for good engine performance at alt.


Jet engine basics

• Air is being sucked in, compressed, and used to burn fuel. Then the exhaust gases leave the engine at high speeds, pushing you forward
  
• Work good at high speeds
  
• Relatively high fuel consumption
  
• Using the afterburner will increase fuel consumption and thrust by alot

The basics of jet engines are: Air is being compressed, and used to burn fuel. The exhaust gases then expand rapidly, and leave the engine at rapid speeds. Again, every action has a opposite reaction, so you are being pushed forward.
Jet engines work better at high speeds (at least the early jets had problems with overheating and couldnt run at full power at low speeds. Not sure about modern jet engines), but not sure if that is modelled, would require some difficult testing.
You can also enable the afterburner (basicly burning fuel outside the engine = after the gases left the engine), increasing both thrust and fuel consumption by alot.
In many modern jet engines, a huge part of the air being sucked in is not used to burn fuel, but is used to cool the engine, increasing fuel efficiency (if I am not mistaken "high-bypass" jets or something). However, at high speeds (past about Mach 1, although I could be wrong) the advantage of that decreases with speed, so high speed engines usually don´t use that.



Ramjet basics:

• Work like jet engines. Air is not sucked in, but pushed in when flying at high speeds
  
• Do not produce any thrust until you have reached some speed
  
• Very fuel efficient, and powerfull once at high speed (~Mach 2)

Ramjets work alot like normal jet engines. However, the air isnt compressed with compressors like in normal jet engines, but the massive (dynamic) pressure that occurs when moving at very high speeds is used to compres the air. That means you need less moving parts. And that means you can reach higher temperatures without destroying your engine, leading to higher efficiency.
They are very effective, but you need a way to reach the necessary speed to use them.

Side note: Ramjets can use pretty much any burnable fluid as fuel - even using coal dust soaked in paraffin can work.


Rocket basics:

• Do not require oxygen to function (will be importand once the lower air density at high alts is modelled)
  
• Powerfull, but fuel inefficient

Last but not least: rocket engines. Unlike jet engines, they do not need any air to function. This enables them to be used in space as well. I have not done enough testing with them to tell how they are modelled, but expect high fuel consumption, and high thrust.

Basics:

• When deflected up, your control surfaces generate a downwards force at the position they are placed
  
• They also increase drag when deflected

Piloting a plane:

• Do not pull too much (AoA would increase too much, and only increase drag, not lift)
  
• Don´t use your rudder to change direction, thats not effective
  
• To turn, first bank your plane (=roll a little), then pull on your elevator
  
• If you roll, you can also use a little rudder in the same direction to decrease drag

The majority of steering is done with control surfaces attached to wings. They work by being moved up or down, changing their own AoA, not by changing the direction the airflow is coming from, but changing the direction the control surface is headed at. That in turn influences both lift, and drag. Moving the control surfaces up will push the air up, pushing the wing it´s attached to down.

The control surfaces on your main wings are called ailerons and are used to roll. If you want to roll right, your right aileron needs to be raised, and your left aileron needs to be lowered. This will cause a difference in lift, making you roll.
However, as a rule of thumb increased lift means increased drag.
If you roll right, your left aileron will increase lift, and therefore drag. On your right wing however, your aileron will first reduce lift, before increasing negative "lift". This means your right aileron will at first reduce drag, before increasing drag again.
This leads do your left wing having more drag than your right wing, which will make you yaw left (= your nose will move left).
Also, at high AoA rolling will make you roll around the point your nose is headed at - an instantaneous 90° roll would therefore turn your entire AoA into a slip angle. That's why it is more noticable at low speeds.
It is one of the reasons you need a tail fin, and a rudder.
If you want to counter this effect, use rudder in the same direction you use your ailerons.
(You can also try and counter this by building the plane a little different - di-/anhedrally placed ailerons will cause a yawing movement, which can be used to counter this; Not sure if possible in-game, but in RL you often have the aileron that's moving down deflect less than the other, reducing this due to having slightly less drag)

The rudder is the control surface mounted on your vertical wing, aka tail fin. It causes a yawing movement, and is hardly ever used to change direction, but rather to make your nose point towards where you are flying. Or to do the opposite, which will increase drag and is called side slipping.
If you want to yaw left your rudder will have to be moved left as well.
Yawing will also make you roll towards the direction you are yawing. As you fly a left circle (however, its a very big circle, so dont use your rudder to turn) your left wing will have a smaller turn radius than your right wing, but the same turn time. This means your right wing will move faster, and as lift increases with speed, will produce more lift, making you roll left.
Also, vertical wings (like the tail fin) above the CoM and the dihedral effect will cause you to roll more.

Last, but not least: the elevator. The elevator is generaly attached to your tail wings, and used to rotate around the pitch axis (= move your nose up and down).
If it is placed in front of your wings, on your nose, your plane is a canard (french for duck, but a duck isn't a canard aerodynamically).
If you pull up, your elevator will push the tail down, but not make you fly up right away, you are still flying in the same direction as before. However, now your wings are pointed further up, but the airflow is still coming from the same direction. That causes an increase in AoA, which causes increased lift, and that's what makes you turn.
However, as mentioned, a too high AoA will reduce lift, so don't pull too much (if it is too easy to pull too much, think about reducing max elevator deflection).
If you want to see an extreme case of a too high AoA (only possible because you don´t lose control when stalling): climb a bit, power off. Pull a little and watch your speed drop. Try to pull more and more, to keep your nose horizontal. Now you should be flying/falling almost vertically, while your nose is roughly horizontal (how exactly the plane behaves in that situation obviously depends on the plane).

Ailerons and elevator are usually being controlled with a stick (joystick if you are sitting in front of your PC), while the rudder is controlled with rudder pedals (can be bought for PC as well, but are often replaced with a twistable JS). (Dont worry if you dont have a JS though, you can fly with mouse and keyboard as well. Mouse movement y for elevator, movement x for ailerons and rudder. Still in progress, gonna be added soon™ according to the devs. IIrc in the UI update.)

Try not to make any sudden movements, and, unless you realy need to, no tight turns. Go easy on your plane, otherwise you might overcompensate. Keep the stick steady.
Also, the more extreme your movements (as in: tight turns, full side slip, quick rolls), the bigger the increase in drag. Don´t do tight turns if you need or want high speed.

Historically, some planes also twisted their wings to change the AoA. Right wing twist up, left wing twist down, and you are rolling left. Both wings twist up, and you´re pulling up. You can try to replicate that by assigning your right and left ailerons to different axes.
You can also use airbrakes instead of a rudder to control the yaw axis. Place them on your wing tips, right airbrake extended, and you´ll yaw right. You´ll need something to stabilise your yaw axis though (swept wings, tail fin, etc.)

Trimming is basicly adjusting your plane so it flies straight without direct pilot input.
A plane generally needs to be retrimmed whenever speed, and altitude change, as well as when emptying fuel tanks (not modelled yet) or dropping weights (bombs, drop tanks, etc.).
In RL, this is mostly done with trim tabs, either adjustable on the ground, or mid-flight.

In-game there are only two ways to adjust your flight behaviour mid-flight, the first one being rotational gyroscopes. Their disadvantage is that they need electrical power, so make sure your plane can still be controlled if you run out of power.
The second option requires spare control surfaces (biplane for aileron trim, 2 tail wing pairs for elevator trim, and at least 2 tail fins for rudder trim). You need to put them on an axis that does not require you to hold the JS in position (for example, the throttle lever many JS have). Big downside is that you need more wings/tail wings/tail fins, leading to higher weight and drag.

A simple way to trim a plane you are building is to adjust the centre of gravity, or the position of your wings and tail wings.
If your plane is too nose-heavy (the nose starts to drop if you don´t counter with the elevator) move your wings further to the nose, maybe also the tail wings. Some tail wing types produce quite a bit of lift that pulls your tail up. Alternatively, move heavy parts (engine, fuel tanks, weapons, etc.) towards the tail. Keep in mind that this also influences stability (!).
If your plane is rolling, you can also fix one of your wings further from the middle than the other (if you are rolling left, position the left wing further left, without moving the right wing). If you are yawing, you can try to position your tail fin off-centre. If the cause for the yawing is a prop engine, you can try to rotate it left or right, pulling your nose a bit towards that direction (although the 9° steps you get might be a bit too much).

Ofcourse, you can also use the "offset angle" on your control surfaces to adjust how your plane handles, but there are limits to this. If you have to trim alot, this will not help enough. Example for that is the default plane. If you pull all the way, your elevator will stall, making it ineffective.
If you are yawing in a multi-engined plane, you can also try to keep the engines on one side at higher RPM than on the other side, or place them asymmetrically.

If you manage to build a plane that flies perfectly straight at all speeds, alts, and RPM settings, without need for retrimming it, or pilot input, you are either extremely lucky, or a genius. Your goal is usually to build a plane that flies pretty straight under cruising conditions, and is still controlable in all other situations.

Stability is very importand - especially if you are new to flying and constructing planes. On the one hand, the more stable your plane is, the easier it is to fly. On the other hand, it will be less agile.

A stable plane will return to straight flight after a disturbance.
If you push on the elevator in a stable plane your nose will move down, and if you let go of it, slightly wobble back.
If you push in a neutral-stability plane your nose will move down, and stay there if you let go of the elevator.
If you push in an unstable plane the plane will keep nosing down if you let go of the elevator. You will have to pull up to stop that. Usually planes like that are very difficult, or even impossible to control.

Similar things apply to yaw and roll stability. A yaw-stable plane will yaw back to where you are flying at unless there is a force to keep it slipped. A roll-stable plane's wings will return to the horizontal, unless there is a force to keep the plane banked.


It's relatively easy to increase yaw and pitch stability. Remember lift and AoA? Thats what we use here. If your AoA is positive (your nose is pointed above the direction the airflow is coming from), the AoA of your tail wings will also be positive, which means they will generate more lift too. That lift will push your tail up, which will make you pitch down, and decrease the AoA until it reached 0°. That's why your centre of lift should always be behind your centre of gravity. Same applies to the yaw axis, just with slip angle, instead of AoA.
Guessing how to make a plane less stable around those axes isnt that hard now I´d say. Instead of placing additional (vertical) (tail) wings behind your centre of gravity, you place them in front of it, or move them further to the front.
Another simple way to adjust your stability is to add drag. Loads of drag on your tail will pull your tail back, which makes your plane more stable. Thanks to that, your tail is a good place to put airbrakes or chutes on.
Also, all of the above are more effective the greater the distance to the CoG.

If your plane is stable around the roll axis, your wings will want to stay parallel to the ground. If no other forces apply, you will be able to let go of the stick, come back later, and your wings will still be horizontal (your nose might be pitched up or down ofcourse). Again, it will be harder to roll because of that. Building a plane that is instable along the roll axis can help you roll very fast, but will require constant attention.

If you want to build a plane to travel a bit, you should build it stable. If you want a fighter, or a stunt plane, you might want less stability, although still enough to be able to control it.

One way to increase roll stability is increasing the dihedral effect. A major influence on the dihedral effect are dihdral wings.
Dihedral wings are wings that are at an angle to each other (= not 180°), so they look like a "V" when viewed at from front. They provide less lift for their drag. On the other hand, they increase the dihedral effect, which will increase roll stability.
This effect relies on side slips. Increasing your yaw stability will reduce the increase in roll stability.
If a plane with dihedral wings slips (lets just say it slips right), your right wing produces less lift, and your left wing produces more lift. That makes you roll. If there is no other force influencing yaw (= you don't use rudder, no influence from prop engine, etc.) this will make your wings return to horizontal.
Obviously, you don't want too much of that, otherwise you will roll alot whenever you slip.

"Anhedral" describes the exact opposite: the wings are angled so they look like an inverted V. This will ofcourse have the opposite effect, but still lower lift for same drag.

Polyhedral wings can only be build in Homebrew when using several wing parts to form one big wing. Its called "gull wings" or "inverted gull wings" if they bend near the fuselage.

Vertical wings above the CoM also increase dihedral effect, while vertical wings below CoM reduce dihedral effect.
Wing sweep also influences dihedral effect, especially at high speeds.


V-tails, are dihedral tail wings, without tail fin.
Simply removing the tail fin from a normal tail would usually reduce yaw stability too much. On the other hand, its one more part that generates drag.
A V-tail provides both yaw and pitch stability with just 2 surfaces, reducing drag. However, it does not provide as much stability as a normal tail.
Whats more, as it is now, you will not be able to use it as rudder, unless assigning both control surfaces on your tail wings to different axes. Both surfaces to the same direction (left/right) would make you yaw, like a rudder. Both surfaces up or down would make you pitch, like an elevator.
In RL a V-tail can also lead to problems if both parts of the V-tail are mounted right beside each other - for example the acceleration of air above the wings adds up, leading to problems at transsonic speeds (see below)

Basics:

• Swept wings are less effective at low speeds, but more effective at high speeds (especially around Mach 1), when compared to straight wings.
  
• Add yaw stability and dihedral effect. Opposite effect in case of negative sweep. Effect increases with speed.
  
• CoL of a swept wing is further back than on a normal wing.
  
  
• Drag increases alot once passing Mach 1.
  
• Parts of the airflow will reach Mach 1 before the entire plane reached Mach 1 (critical Mach number is when this first happens), leading to increase in drag even eariler (not sure if modelled).
  
• Wing sweep increases critical Mach number.
  
• In RL: On swept wings, the wing tip stalls first, leading to very sudden loss of roll control in case of a stall. Opposite effect in case of negative sweep.

Remember when I said it would be important that the air above a wing is accelerated? It's important for what's known as critical Mach number. The critical Mach number is the air speed at which some part of the airflow first reaches Mach 1 (the speed of sound).
The critical Mach number is important for a number of reasons:
- When passing the critical Mach number, drag starts to increase alot.
- It may lead to a "high speed stall", if the wing shape is not suited for transsonic speeds
- Due to high speed stalls, many straight wing aircraft lose control when flying too fast. This can be a problem at very high altitudes, as the stall speed may be above the critical Mach number. It can also be a problem in dives (many WWII era plane's max dive speed was limited by critical Mach number - they didn't fall apart at those speeds, they lost control)

Below Mach 1, the airflow "knows" what is ahead of it, as "information" about it can travel against the direction of the air flow. At Mach 1 that doesn't happen anymore. This leads to "shock waves" whenever a part of the airflow is being slowed down.
Shock waves increase drag. Alot. A h u g e lot. So much in fact, that it took the allies some very, very powerfull rocket engines to first pass Mach 1 with a normal straight wing design. And "normal" already means ridiculously high wing loading (= very small wings) and a body shape inspired by bullets. They only managed to break the "sound barrier"™ with a jet after they either found the same solutions as the Germans did at the end of WWII, or studied their documents and projects for new planes (not gonna bother which is the case, either way the Germans knew about that stuff).
What was the stuff the Germans knew that the allied didn't know? One thing was wing sweep (some work about that was published pre-1939, so the allied must have known, but didn't use), the other thing was the area rule.

For all who don't know what wing sweep is:

Wing sweep has a number of advantages and disadvantages. First of all, it's less effective at low speeds. It's stall characteristics are different, and the CoL is further back than on a normal wing. This is why:
The air flow at the wings is deflected. More air passes over the tips/root (positive/negative sweep), and therefore the tip/root produces more lift, and has a higher wing loading. More lift at tip/root means that the centre of lift moves back, and more wing loading means that the tip/root stalls first.
To help reduce that, wing fences were invented (already invented by the Germans btw), They work by reducing the sideways movement of the airflow, therefore reducing the entire effect. Downside is that they increase drag obviously.
Other than that, the usual ways of increasing lift and/or max AoA are used. Flaps, slats, etc.



















Another thing about wing sweep is already explained in the next picture:
(What isn't mentioned properly imho is that the cause for the increased lift is the increased wing span)
That means it adds yaw stability. As not just the wing span increases, but also the sweep decreases, the increase in drag will be higher at transsonic and supersonic speeds. The increased lift also means that you roll with slip direction - dihedral effect is increased.
To illustrate the effect on drag (note however, that that is the drag coefficient - drag increases with speed, even if the drag coefficient decreases with speed):























The area rule most definitly isn't modelled in Homebrew. Still interesting imho, and something you might find usefull in other games.
The area in the area rule is the cross-section-area. It needs to change steadily for lowest transsonic drag. Ideal cross-section distribution:
Where that cross-section is located is of no importance. This led to some intersting shapes for planes.
As you can see, the fuselage is narrower where the wings are, to reduce the cross-section there. You can also see the wing fences.


Keep in mind that air being ducted through the plane (= intakes -> engine -> back outside) influences area ruling.

The only shockwave generated at transsonic speeds is generated where the highest cross-section is (at higher speeds, more shockwaves may be generated).

To sum up, I´ll make a list of your "tools" you can use to change the flight characteristics of your plane.

• Engines
  
  • Propeller Engines
    
    • Good for low speeds
      
    • +Relatively low fuel consumption
      
    • -High drag when too low RPM, or flying very fast
      
    • -Makes your plane roll and yaw, if not using counter rotating props
  • Jet Engines
    
    • Good for high speeds
      
    • +High thrust
      
    • +Afterburner for even higher thrust
      
    • -High fuel consumption, even higher fuel consumption with afterburner
      
    • -Heavy (? Could be wrong here, don't remember anymore)
  • Ramjet Engines
    
    • Good for high and very high speeds (gets better as speed increases)
      
    • +Very low fuel consumption
      
    • +Very high thrust
      
    • -No thrust unless already at about an estimated 500km/h
  • Rocket Engines
    
    • +Good at all speeds
      
    • +High thrust
      
    • -Very high fuel consumption
• Trims
  
  • Additional control surfaces used to trim
    
    • +Adjustable mid-flight
      
    • -Requires additional control surfaces (wings/tail wings/tail fins) -> higher drag and weight
      
    • -Requires an additional axis (like the throttle lever on a JS)
  • Rotational gyroscopes
    
    • +Adjustable mid-flight
      
    • -Needs electrical power -> bad for very long flights
      
    • -Requires an additional axis
  • Offset angle of normal control surfaces
    
    • +No additional requirements
      
    • -Not adjustable mid-flight
      
    • -Limited to small corrections (otherwise, your control surface might stall at full deflection)
  • Modifying the plane
    
    • +No additional requirements
      
    • +Most effective way to trim
      
    • -Not adjustable mid-flight
      
    • -Takes more work than the other fixed trims
• Stability
  
  • High stability makes flying easier, low stability makes your plane more agile
    
  • Generally: The closer the CoM is to the nose, and the closer the wings are to the tail, the more pitch stable the plane is. The further from the CoM the tail fin is (must be behind CoM), and the bigger it is, the greater the yaw stability.
• Dihedral wings
  
  • +Add roll stability
    
  • -Lower lift, while keeping the same drag
• Swept Wings
  
  • +Reduce drag at high speeds, and drag per wing at low speeds
    
  • +Add (a little) roll stability
    
  • +Add (a little) yaw stability (both increases with speed)
    
  • -Less lift per wing, less lift per drag at low speeds
• V-tail
  
  • +Less drag
    
  • -Lower stability (pitch and yaw)
    
  • -Cannot be used as rudder currently
    
  • -Less effective as elevator (same type and position non-dihedral elevator would have a bigger effect)

21/12/2014: Guide published.

24/12/2014: "Your first planes" moved just behind the introduction. Gonna work on it soon™ (add pictures etc.).

26/12/2014: Introduction changed (had forgotten that when moving "your first planes". Guide name changed. "Basics" added about lift, each propulsion system, steering, and piloting a plane. Added something to the jet engine description.

3/01/2015: Added two screenshots to "your first planes". Added example of how to reduce the offset angle needed for the default plane´s elevator.

06/2015 (sorry, forgot to update changelog properly, forgot which day): Redid the "Your first planes" section.

14/07/2015: Several changes to pretty much all parts of the guide. Picture for prop pitch and picture for stability added.
Added "Wing Sweep and Transsonic Aerodynamics" section, but haven't added much to it yet.

20/07/2015: Wrote some more about wing sweep. Fixed typo in part about dihedral effect.
Later that day: Added comment about V-tails at high speeds. Wrote more about swept wings and transsonic aerodynamics

12/09/2015: Added pictures to your first planes, and slightly modified it. Slightly modified part about AoA and lift.

17/06/2016: Changes (mostly minor) to all sections.

16/09/2017: Fixed typo